Occidental Punta Cana DR

The grounds are absolutely beautiful. Well maintained and very clean. At night the lights on the pool and buildings cast a lovely ambiance on the property. The staff are very nice although English is a bit of a challenge for most of them. The nightly entertainment was very good from the trapeze acrobat show, Las Vegas show, Michael Jackson show (which was excellent), with lots of crowd participation. The Entertainment MC's were both awesome. The a la carte restaurants were just average. F [... read more]ood was never too hot and all the courses seemed to arrive at the same time. We were disappointed that there was no premium liquors at the bar. The dinner house wines were never consistent - different at every meal. The new renovated rooms are updated with nice touches like magnifying mirrors in the bathroom, hairdryers and all the shampoo/conditioner and body wash you needed. Always had to ask for maids to replenish beer in the room fridge and never had more than 2 beers at once. Lobby was beautiful and clean and enjoyed all the singers that performed. The outside couches were comfy and a nice touch. Overall, a very nice property.

AmaZing resort!

Staff was very friendly , the hotel and grounds were very well maintained , big room, lots of food options which were all great , especially the a la cartes, would recommend this resort to anyone and can't wait to go back!

Beautiful!

The area was really nice, staff made sure the resort was clean day in and out. Huge communication barrier with staff. If you wanted anything fast you were not getting it (front desk, drinks, food at al la cartes). Rooms were absolutely beautiful, the best i have seen on a down south resort. Good mixture of people (babies to the elderly). Small enough to walk around! I would go back to this resort!!

Occidental Grand,Punta Cana D.R.

Dissapointed that room requested...Ground Floor, Ocean Front,2 beds,turned in to3rd floor room with 1 king bed.We were promised that we would be moved the next day.An appointment was made for2:00 p.m.Some time later we were contacted and told they would be there at 4:00 o'clock.That time came and went and no one came.We decided we we're' the going to spend our holiday waiting for someone to come .We found out we were far from the only people promised rooms we didn't get. Our Nexus rep did a p [... read more]oor job of informing us about the amenities avalaible to us as first club members.Told us we needed to talk to front desk,about accommodation....no help at all

Nice resort

Food needs improvement house keeping is slow. Need more speaking English. The resort is beautiful over all. The beach could be more groomed. I don't think I would go back. The hotel is very nice. The shows were really good. Drinks well you know.

Great hotel!

I just got back from one week holiday, March 1st to March 8th, I had a great room building #26, renovated room, pool view and to the right the beach! The food was good, there's something for everyone, I really like the Mexican A La Carte, I didn't like the Italian, I had chicken parmesan which was deep fried, I'm use to being baked but I heard lots of people were having steak there and it was good. I did try the Steakhouse, I like my steak well done or pink, I had to send it back it was runny bl [... read more]ood. I didn't try the Oriental and the Seafood, I heard good thing about it. I didn't find the service that great. I had a wonderful time it was very clean and safe. One thing would of been nice is to be able to go to the gym anytime, we had to wait until 8:00 a.m. for the guy to open it, would of been better if we could of use our key card.

Beautiful beach

This resort had one of the best beaches in Punta Cana.The food was great.The rooms were nice.Being part of the First Club was amazing as we had our own bar on the beach with no waiting ever, well worth the extra money.

Occidental punta cana

Recently renovated. Nicely done. Lots of open air lounging and places to kick back in the evening .more room on the beach and pool areas too We enjoyed our third trip there in 10 years and will go back

First time surfer

The MOST AMAZING BEACH I have ever seen . The food was great and plentiful. Had a great time on the excursions did surfing first time of my life loved it!! The hotel and rooms were great and clean. The staff was great and friendly !!

Awesome

All was great, clean resort. Staff was very pleasant and helpful when asked for any assistance. Beach was stunning and clean. Excursion were well planned and alot of fun. Nightly entertainment was very enjoyable.

Absolutely Beautiful Resort

Our stay at the Occidental Punta Cana was amazing! Wonderful people, beautiful, clean resort! I do not recommend going to Punta Cana with Pesos because all they take is American so we got ripped off huge! The airport was a complete nightmare as they only accept American or credit card! Well when you don't have either and have to exchange Canadian to American, they ROB you! Which happened to us because we were starving because 6 hours of waiting because our plane was delayed we were starving and [... read more] dying of thirst so we had to spend money! Would love compensation from Air Transat as well because they were horrible! Won't be flying with them again! Not too sure if I want to go back to Dominican again unless the American dollar is good and we can exchange it here! I wish we knew better! But again, the resort was great and I would stay there again if we went back!

Occidental Punta Cana

The hotel was was ok but we had no TV for 3 days. We had a problem with the door for one day my husband had to stay in the hot heat to wait for the repair man to fix our door handle. No huts on the beach as it showed on picture and my husband and I had no shade and husband has lupus of the skin!! The front desk was not helpful at all. The advisors were more helpful then staff not organized at all just empty promises!!!The rep for Air Trans were not helpful at all!!! No wifi always problems. Food [... read more] was always the same at the buffet.The restaurant were excellent!!!

Beautiful resort

This Hotel had everything you needed the restaurants were great! loved the live shows and entertainment they had every night beautiful pools the service was great really enjoyed our stay would definitely go back

A little misleading and not a 4 star but all in all a decent vacation.

Checkin is as described - Brutal. 2nd in line at the Transat private checkin and it still took 45-60 minutes to get a room and not a renovated room with a king which was what we asked for. Not all rooms are upgraded. They are under construction so one building was closed and being worked on. We were in an older building and despite asking several times to move we finally gave up as it was ruining our vacation stressing about it. To be fair the older room was not that bad, but a newer room w [... read more]ould have been nice. Our first time in Punta Cana and likely our last. The country is dirty and the people do not seem to have any pride so they throw their garbage anywhere and everywhere. Although nothing happened we never felt very safe off the resort even in the day time. The hotel had been purchased by Barcelo and part of the renovations took out all the palapas which we saw on the pictures and since my wife needs shade that was a bit disappointing to find out they were gone. They also advertised a casino but that does not exist yet. The hotel appeals to the Russians and although we met a few Russians that were nice the majority are pushy and want to always be served first, so this is an annoyance that I can do without when I`m on vacation. The majority of the staff were all friendly, but their was an expectation pretty well everywhere. At the lobby when getting change a tip was expected. Twice I asked for change for a $20 and both times I was shown $19 in the right hand and $1 in his left hand, the assumption being $19 for me and $1 for him. Probably would have tipped anyway, but don't like the expectation. Our Transat rep Antonio was only interested in what you had to say if you were booking an excursion. Other than that he had no time for you. A couple we met there went on an excursion to Saona island booked through Transat rep and she came back to the hotel crying that evening. worse day ever they said and unfortunately that was their last night so it leaves a sour taste in your mouth for vacation. They spent 5 hours on the bus going from location to location, dropping off, picking up, then the Rep let merchants onto the bus to try to sell them stuff and they hated that, they felt cornered, then they went on the boat and the Catamaran, both boats were so packed that they had very little space for them to sit and then when they got to the island the whole time they were there the merchants kept coming up to sell them stuff. Now the good The food at the buffet was quite good and 4 of the 5 a la cartes were also very good. We chose Lasagna at the Italian and that was not good at all. The pizza place was good, the Tacqueria was also good. The snack shack by the pool is also quite good for fast food and drinks. There was plenty to drink and even when there were lines, they moved pretty fast. The water at the beach is beautiful. There was a bit of seaweed which I hear is a problem but we did not really have an issue. The place never seemed that crowded and in fact they have a large pool that very few people use because there is no bar nearby so that pool which is likely the length of football field by about 30 yards wide is quite empty. Entertainment is as it is at most places and that`s ok. There is a disco that opens at 11pm but after midnight you have to pay for the drinks which we found odd. After my complaining they did offer to move us to another hotel but at this point we would have lost a day and we may have been moved to a worse place, so we decide 'better the devil you know'. We met some very nice Canadians (Punta Canada as they call it) and a few Americans and spent the majority of our days hanging out with them. The beach chairs and pools chairs were new which was nice.

Occidental Punta Cana. beautiful resort

The Occidental is a beautiful resort that in undergoing a refit, Air Transat rooms were in the newer part and were large and modern, King sized bed and balcony, bottled water was available throughout the complex and in our room. The beach was amazing and you could walk for miles in either direction. The food is quite good although by the end of the week it was getting repetitive. The evening entertainment was excellent and we looked forward the the live singers in the bar and the show later in [... read more] the evening. There are not enough places to get drinks by the water and there is always a line-up. Service is slow and there never appears to be anyone in charge. Do not pay for express check-in as it does not exist. We paid and after waiting 45 minutes for the 3 people in front of us to check-in it took another 30 minutes once we got to the counter. Service in general at the resort is hit and miss. If you fly Air Transat, be warned the line-up at the airport is atrocious. The 4 hours they say you need to catch a flight is needed and the Air Transat lines were incredibly slow. That being said we enjoyed the holiday, but ended up with travelers diarrhea. If we go back we would likely stay at another resort.

Had a good time but would not return or recommend

The hotel is nice enough , pools great, beach beautiful. How ever it lacks decent staff. There were a few who were really good but not many. Our maid service was terrible, from not cleaning room one day , we had no towels or water one day. Had two beer in fridge day we arrived and never had more. Minor i know but little things like this is reasons we would not recommend . Bar at beach was always lined right up , took forever to get a drink. Buffet was typical , wouldnt go hungrey.

So so...

We arrived at 1pm and as check in time was not until 3pm, we were advised to come back at that time and our room would be ready. We went back to reception about 3:30pm and our room was not ready at that time. We went back again at 4pm at 4:30pm at 5:00pm, etc.- many people were arriving and being checked in as the afternoon progressed. At 5:30pm we still DID NOT have our room. Finally we were told it was ready. The bellhop loaded our luggage and we went to our "readied" room. When we arrive [... read more]d the room had not even been touched. We left our luggage there and went back to reception where we were informed that our room had been given to someone else in error and they had another room for us. Our luggage was still in that room. So, they finally cleaned it. Sometime after 6pm we were in our room. It wasn't long before we discovered that the air conditioning was not working. We informed our Transat Agent who guaranteed us that it was be fixed ASAP. Nothing happened at all. For 3 days we informed our agent and the staff at reception. There was a huge communication problem as to who was responsible for informing the maintenance staff regarding the air conditioning. Finally, after 3 days of no air conditioning and no possibility of it being repaired, we were moved to another room in a different building. Other travellers experienced far worse problems, including sewage backups and water leaking into closets from the rooms above them. This would be an awesome resort if our transat agent would have actually taken the problems seriously and communicated with the hotel that there were issues to be addressed.

One of my best vacations ever!

I loved the hotel. I was travelling alone and felt very safe there. Staff was cordial and polite. Grounds were clean despite the work that was going on. The beach was really clean and beautifully maintained. The food was excellent, the best I have eaten in Dominican Republic. I immensely enjoyed my stay.

Resort was very nice , beach was beautiful, grounds were clean.

Hotel was very nice, kept clean, beach was beautiful and clean. Housekeeping was not so good, was not given clean towels, they re-folded the dirty towels. Food was not very good at buffett, not much of a variety. Staff were not so friendly, everytime we asked for something they did not bring it to us. Upon arrival the hotel said they did not have accomodation for us and wanted to send us to another resort. I asked staff to check air conditioner in my room as it was not working, and the [... read more]y again asked me if i would like to go to another resort. I would not re-visit this resort .

Great resort

Very clean, but the service could be a little faster and people should not be ignored, I felt like sometimes the servers did not want to serve us because we did not tip all the time. The rooms were very clean resort was clean did have an issue at check in but it was resolved quickly